Hardware-Efficient, Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computation with Rydberg Atoms

TL;DR

This paper characterizes error sources in neutral atom quantum computers using Rydberg states and proposes hardware-efficient, fault-tolerant schemes that significantly reduce resource costs, enabling near-term implementation.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive error analysis and introduces novel fault-tolerant protocols tailored for neutral atom quantum systems.

Findings

Characterized errors from Rydberg state decay and correlated errors.

Developed efficient error mitigation methods for atomic qubits.

Reduced resource requirements for fault-tolerant quantum computation.

Abstract

Neutral atom arrays have recently emerged as a promising platform for quantum information processing. One important remaining roadblock for the large-scale application of these systems is the ability to perform error-corrected quantum operations. To entangle the qubits in these systems, atoms are typically excited to Rydberg states, which could decay or give rise to various correlated errors that cannot be addressed directly through traditional methods of fault-tolerant quantum computation. In this work, we provide the first complete characterization of these sources of error in a neutral-atom quantum computer and propose hardware-efficient, fault-tolerant quantum computation schemes that mitigate them. Notably, we develop a novel and distinctly efficient method to address the most important errors associated with the decay of atomic qubits to states outside of the computational subspace. These advances allow us to significantly reduce the resource cost for fault-tolerant quantum computation compared to existing, general-purpose schemes. Our protocols can be implemented in the near-term using state-of-the-art neutral atom platforms with qubits encoded in both alkali and alkaline-earth atoms.